Language News
This page keeps you up to date with the latest language news from around the West Midlands and beyond. Please contact us if you have a language news story or culture-related news item you would like us to publicise on this page.
7 out of 10 GCSE entries were awarded a grade C or above and A Level results improved again this year, but the number of students taking languages has continued to fall. Entries for French and German were down again, with French bowing out of the top ten GCSE subjects and as employers, educationalists and politicians alike say that we are letting our young people down by allowing them to shun languages, the question is 'what do we do now?'
Read the latest national news from the CILT website
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Britain does not measure up well against its European cousins on foreign languages, according to a survey by specialist language recruiter Euro London Appointments.
The survey of 116 FTSE 250 companies in Britain found that only four companies were able to answer right away in the caller’s language, while 12 asked the caller to hold and found someone who could speak the correct language, and 17 companies just hung up.
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Two-thirds of employers unhappy with young people's language skills - 07 June 2010
71% of UK employers are dissatisfied with foreign language skills in school and college leavers, and 55% are unhappy about graduates’ language skills, according to a new survey by the CBI.
The report, which sets out what makes young people most employable, highlights the importance of linguistic proficiency in another language and its capacity to help build business relationships around the world.
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Lessons in Global Enterprise for Sutton Coldfield students - 27 May 2010
Two established West Midlands Business Language Champions helped local students explore the importance of language skills within the business world recently when they ran workshops at a Global Enterprise Day.
Brian Savin, of Savin Productions and Matthew Finch from PMD Magnetics were joined by the RLN’s Chris Everall as they challenged Year 10 boys from Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield to experience, explore and understand the value of languages at work.
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A new campaign has been launched with the aim of getting more people in the UK to learn German. ‘Think German’ will promote German-themed cultural events and conferences across the country, as well as provide plenty of resources for German learners at all levels. It is thought up to 120 million people speak German worldwide and it is the language currently most sought after by British employers, behind French but there is still a declining number of students taking the subject at GCSE and the campaign hopes to reverse this trend.
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Students from Ninestiles School in Acocks Green were inspired to keep up their language skills recently when they were visited by local language expert Sara Alvarado.
Sara, who runs her own translation business, Airspeed Translations, visited the school to talk to 60 Year 8 students about the variety of career options open to them if they continue with their language studies.
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A recent survey conducted for CILT, the National Centre for Languages, has revealed that employers rank foreign language skills as second only to IT when it comes to finding the right candidate.
Kathryn Board, Chief Executive of CILT, said: “In the current economic climate, it’s more important than ever to give young Britons the skills they need to build a successful career for themselves."
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Students in Rugby tested their language, tourism and business skills recently when they were set the task of promoting their town to overseas visitors.
The sixty students from Rugby High School, Avon Valley School and Bilton School listened to presentations by two local business people who use languages in their work before putting their language skills into practise to create posters promoting Rugby as a desirable destination for French athletes taking part in the 2012 Olympic Games.
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Year 9 students at Aston Manor School in Birmingham, boosted their future employability when they took part in a languages workshop in conjunction with Birmingham International Airport.
The workshop was designed to show students the importance of languages in the workplace and how such skills are used within the tourism industry to attract overseas visitors.
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Year 9 students at the Priory School in Shrewsbury made languages their business recently when they were visited by an export consultant.
Becky Stark, Director of Stark Export Focus Limited, an export consultancy service, visited the school to kick off a series of workshops aimed at helping students to understand the importance of languages within the workplace and to encourage them to keep up these skills to increase their future employability.
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Students from Kings Norton Girls’ School put their futures’ into perspective recently when they took part in a workshop to raise awareness of the importance of language skills.
One hundred and fifty Year 9 girls listened avidly to business speaker Helene Adlard, from Wragge and Co’s Birmingham office, as she explained how languages have benefitted her career.
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Matthew Finch from Stratford-based PMD Magnetics became the latest recruit to the Business Language Champions programme when he ran a workshop in Atherstone to encourage youngsters to continue with language learning. Seventy-seven students from Queen Elizabeth School and Sports College listened to Matthew's experience of using languages at work before creating posters in French, German and Spanish to promote the Jetflash USB memory stick currently sold by PMD Magnetics.
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The LinkedUp Scheme, in collaboration with CILT the National Centre for Languages, is looking for schools, colleges and businesses who would like to work together to benefit learners, develop new approaches to language teaching and create employer links.
Each project receives £3,000, which can pay for teachers' time, travel expenses, pupil resources and employers' time. The next two deadlines for applications are 15 February and 23 April 2010 so if you would like to find out more please contact Kathy Wickstead on 01858 575864 or visit the Links into Languages website.
A £6 million pound project has been recently launched in the West Midlands to provide SME's with funding and advice on how to develop their companies internationally and sell to new overseas markets.
West Midlands (SME) Internationalisation is an ERDF funded project which can provide grants to eligible SME’s, to support a range of internationalisation activities including developing an international trade strategy, skills development and attending overseas trade fairs and exhibitions.
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